Model Airplane News June 2022

It takes a special kind of pilot—with nerves of steel!—to fly a bush plane. Bush pilots have to take off and land in very short distances on rough terrain, often with no prepared landing strips, and takeoff and approach angles can be exceedingly steep. For people in remote locations, a bush plane is often the only lifeline in delivering gear and supplies. One of the most renown bush planes ever built, DRACO was a highly modified Wilga STOL aircraft that, with its bright red scheme, was instantly recognizable. In 2019, Draco crashed on takeoff while leaving the Reno Air Races. The aircraft was a total loss, but fortunately builder and pilot Mike Patey and his passenger survived. The DRACO design lives on in E-flite’s 6-foot, 7-inch-span, electric-powered model, which technical…

FOKKER DVII Lane Crabtree, Fort Worth, Texas Built from the 1/4-scale Balsa USA kit, Lane’s DVIII sports the white Hermann Göring scheme. The biplane is powered by a DLE-30 turning a 20 x 8 Zinger propeller. Lane notes, “When building this kit, it’s important to keep weight off the tail end, especially during finishing as primer and paint can make you pay a heavy penalty up front with unnecessary ballast.” He also recommends keeping the rudder and elevator servos forward in the fuselage with scale pull/pull controls. Lane increased the positive incidence on his aircraft’s horizontal tail by 4 degrees to avoid a tendency to climb. DELTA VORTEX Joe Porhammer, Eagle Point, Oregon Joe converted his Bruce Tharpe kit from glow to electric, extending his flying wing’s engine housing to create a cowl for the…

FINE-TUNING SMOKE One of the ways to optimize your smoke system to produce thick, fluffy smoke trails is to fine-tune the amount of smoke fluid being pumped into your smoke muffler. For a system with a non-adjustable pump, I use a replacement glow engine remote needle-valve assembly. Simply hook it up between the pump and the muffler and start with two full turns open. Then you can tweak the needle valve to get the desired amount of fluid. Often, pumps supply too much fluid and this will cool off the muffler and reduce the amount of smoke. Adam Murphy, Southbury, Connecticut NO-ROLL KNIFE Round-handle hobby knives are very handy and quickly get the job done. However, they can roll off the edge of the workbench and fall onto the floor. At best the razor…

OLD SCHOOL MODEL WORKS ONE-O NINE With its interlocking design and high-quality, laser-cut parts, the One-O-Nine is a quick build. In the air, the fully sheeted airframe is agile and responsive. A removeable wing makes transport easy and allows easy access to the radio compartment. From OSMW’s Sunday Fighter lineup, the 45.5-inch-span One-O nine is intended for electric power or a .25-size glow engine. This kit costs $170. oldschoolmodels.com SEAGULL MODELS CESSNA GRAND CARAVAN Intended for a 30cc gas engine or electric equivalent, this ARF features lightweight wood construction and has an accurate scale outline. Scale details include functional cockpit and cargo doors, LED nav lights, functional flaps, instrument panel and seat, and a scheme finished in Oracover film. Three-piece, plug-in wing panels with an aluminum tube joiner make it easy to transport this…

I started down the long road I’ve taken in this hobby by playing with free-flight balsa gliders. This led to RC gliders, a love for all things aviation-related, and eventually over 3,000 hours in the P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft. If you’re looking to spark that same love of aviation in your kids, Whistle Pig toys is a way to sneak in some education under the guise of having fun. Whistle Pig has several small, free-flight models available that, unbeknownst to a youngster, have the potential to teach many skills they will need later in modeling: building flat and straight, how not to glue yourself to your project, proper CG balance, and even some rudimentary flight trimming and aerodynamics. I was sent their $7.50 Model FF7, a P-40 that looks like a…

It has been 10 years since the release of the PowerBox Competition, which became the gold standard for redundant power and receiver systems in large and complex models. Compatible with several radio systems, components such as this and the Mercury are seen on flightlines worldwide in turbine jets and other large aircraft. Last year brought about the release of the SR2 version of the PowerBox Competition, and I got one of the early units that I used in a review of the Seagull Extra 330LX. The six-servo Extra hardly taxed the capabilities of the SR2, but it gave me a solid platform to learn the product for use in a larger and more complex model. SR2 HIGHLIGHTS The Competition SR2 is worthy of display in a jewelry case with its precision machined-aluminum…